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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28575225">Betwixt Skyline and Shoreline</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mersheeple/pseuds/Mersheeple'>Mersheeple</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Animagus, Character Death, F/M, Fluff and Angst</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 04:42:12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>957</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28575225</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mersheeple/pseuds/Mersheeple</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>It started in the water. It ended in the sky.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Hermione Granger/Severus Snape</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>50</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Betwixt Skyline and Shoreline</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>ANGST WARNING! PLEASE STAY SAFE FROM THIS ANGST MONSTER...*massive hugs*</p>
<p>Moon, thank you for the picture prompt...sorry I wrote this angsty piece...it was inevitable at the moment... &lt;3</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When it all started, she had taken her form and splashed him as he stood on the beach, looking out at the horizon. She had run up the beach towards him, chittering and calling to him and he had thrown back his head and laughed, splashing water back at her from his wand, sending cold jets at her as if it were the funniest thing in the world. He had played with her for an hour, until she had dived deep into the water and come out with some sort of spiky urchin that had made him <i>so</i> excited that he had abandoned her to go down to his lab. He had called over his shoulder to beg her to get as many more as she could and, with a brief wave, he had transfigured a rock into a rather large basket for her to fill. She had filled the basket, of course, even in her otter form she was desperate for his approval, a fact he had laughed about at the time.</p>
<p>When it had all started, she had taught him how to hold his breath for just long enough to turn his face into the water and point towards ingredients he may want to experiment with that she could dive down and get for him. He had been thrilled to find the Sphinx Soul Seaweed not long after her discovery of the Shadow Urchins she had found on their first trip to the ocean’s edge. He was ecstatic to find the Pandemonium Sea Basil, which flittered and moved and pulsed in shades of green. He was terrified the first time she had had to fight with the Hercules Manatee that usually lived deeper out in the ocean. She had flittered around it and eventually it had huffed away, swimming away from the hyperactive otter.</p>
<p>When it had all started, he had admitted he wanted to learn to become an Animagus but was afraid. She had asked what he was afraid of and he had quietly, oh so quietly and shyly admitted that he could not swim and was scared that he would drown if his form was aquatic. She had wrapped her arms around him tight and had offered to be his partner when he changed the first time.  He had been glad she was there when he took his form for the first time. He was a Stellar Sea Lion, dark brown with golden patches, friendly and sweet, the exact opposite of Severus himself. Or so Severus told her. She didn’t believe a word of it.</p>
<p>When they swam together, Severus stopped wanting to watch the horizon in his human form. He stopped wanting to reach out for the moon, or the sun, or the stars or all the far reaches. He was happy in the deep, dark blue. He was happy at the surface and he was happy diving into the deep. She was finally able to travel with him, deeper and further away than before. Her body couldn’t dive as deep as his and so sometimes he had to leave her for a few minutes. Each minute he was away she worried a little more but, eventually, she got used to it.</p>
<p>When they swam together, he moved majestically through the water, no extraneous movements, as sleek and as lithe as he was in his true form on land. She, on the other hand, floated and dove and skimmed the water and twirled around him, resolving to expend all her excess energy while she was in the water. He feigned exhaustion, nipping at her every time she swam past him, but he would chase her through the water and hug her close as soon as they got out, casting a drying and warming charm on her so that she got the benefits of both before he did.</p>
<p>When they swam together, he rarely got into trouble after he let himself relax into his Animagus form. As a human he may not know how to swim but as a Stellar Sea Lion he knew how to live in the water and swimming was part of that. He knew what he could eat and what he could touch and he could collect many ingredients himself. He knew what to shy away from…except when he didn’t. Some things in the ocean were, he had found, deadly to Sea Lions, even when they weren’t to humans.</p>
<p>When they walked together on the beach, when he became too weak to swim with her, he would watch the water and stare out towards the horizon. He would watch the sun setting over the ocean and sigh, staring out over the water with regret.</p>
<p>When they walked to their cottage together, he would turn around and watch the moon over the ocean, his eyes misty as he cursed his misfortune in his head. He would watch the waves lap the shore and wait for as long as he could until the wind bit into his skin and he began to shiver. She would wrap her arms around him, helping him stay strong even as his magic and his spirit and his body weakened.</p>
<p>The night she threw his ashes to the wind, the moon was full and high in the sky. The wind was cool, and she turned her eyes to the horizon, staring over their happy place. A flash of white caught her eye and she smiled as the shadow of her lover’s Animagus frolicked in the water. Somewhere betwixt skyline and shoreline, Severus Snape carried her heart with him into the other world where he would wait for the day that she would follow him and they could play together again in the deep dark blue.</p>
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